the big surprises of his first breathtaking concert at Paris La Défense Arena

The Swifties (Taylor Swift fans’ nickname) had “underlined in red” May 9, 2024 in their calendar for a long time. It must be said that it is not every day that the most popular singer on the planet makes a four-day stopover in our territory. Better yet, the artist from Pennsylvania was not there to offer a show focused on his latest album, The Tortured Poets Departmentreleased on April 19, but for a best of show: The Eras Tour.

This world tour is an opportunity for Taylor Swift to revisit her entire career and look back on the chapters of her life, her “eras”. More than musical chapters with her different influences, from country to pop to folk, the eras are sequences from the life of the 34-year-old singer who delivers, album after album, her personal diaries. We can recognize several cascading developments: the young girl who became a young woman then a global muse, the romantic oscillating between dreamed idylls and bitter disillusionments, or the shy young American who became the target of all attention and all criticism.

The highly autobiographical work of Taylor Swift is reviewed for the shows of this Eras Tour. There are the essential hits like the danceable Shake It Of or the essential Blank Space but also some daring choices drawn from the singer-songwriter’s ten studio albums. Enough to satisfy the general public present at Paris La Défense Arena, from the youngest to historic fans, from the most dedicated experts to those who are somewhat overwhelmed by the events.

Impressive endurance

Taylor Swift offered the Parisian public (but also French, European and American – who came in large numbers) a frantic show. After a first part of the American rock group Paramore Led by the bouncy singer Hayley Williams, Taylor Swift appeared on the gigantic stage in the heart of a giant flower. Swifties who studied properly before going to the concert were not surprised by this introduction. It must be said that the Eras Tour already started a while ago across the Atlantic and this incredible performance from 3h30 is available for streaming on the Disney+ platform.

But there were, among the fans, spectators determined to be surprised. The Eras Tour is a well-rated, chaptered show. The singer uses the image of a doll house whose rooms we visit one after the other to travel through our memories. A color code lets you know where you are in the Swiftian timeline.

If Taylor Swift is an organized artist, she does not forget to manage her rhythm well and does not follow a stupidly chronological structure. It is with the era Lover (2019) that she got the ball rolling. We heard Miss Americana & The Heartbreak Princethe tubes Cruel Summer And You Need To Calm Down aas well as the feminist anthem The Man. A thunderous start where Taylor Swift shows off her muscles (with a smirk) and shows that she is not the sweet and frail “America’s little bride”, as the media so likes to portray her. She has power and she’s not afraid to show it. A perfectly refreshing and welcome lack of humility.

The eras follow Fearless (2008) and Red (2012). There, Taylor Swift takes us into her time machine. The opportunity to bring back memories to early fans and demonstrate its incredible longevity. Because Taylor Swift didn’t wait for her album 1989 (2014) to create tubes. Arena’s enthusiasm for You Belong With Me And love story is in perfect demonstration. After these youthful titles with very effective romantic accents, it was the Taylor Swift of the settling of scores who showed her claws with We Are Never Ever Getting Back Togetheranthem to definitive separation or the very catchy I Know You Were Troubled.

Gifts for Paris

Taylor Swift only spoke a few times between her songs. She said a few words of thanks for her fans and the traditional French words that hit the mark when an American artist is in Paris. But she didn’t waste her breath or her time. She wasn’t there to do stand-up or a meeting. She has dozens of songs to sing without a second break (except to change costumes).

When she took the microphone, it was also and above all to provide surprises. The first that delighted his fans was the performance of his song All To Well in its full 10 minute version. A spectacular conclusion to his scarlet era Red. A great demonstration of his memory and concentration too. In just three eras, we are impressed by his precision and commitment to interpretation.

The eras follow one another and are not alike. The singer continues with the era Speak Now (2010) with Enchantedfor the era reputation with …Ready For It or Look What You Made Me Do. This latest hit presents a vengeful Taylor, who reappropriates the image of the snake that was stuck to her skin by a certain Kim Kardashian, her best enemy. A song created with Jack Antonoff with whom Taylor Swift made a certain aesthetic change and which, it must be admitted, sounds better on album and music video than on its re-orchestration for the Eras Tour stage.

The sister-eras folklore And evermore, very popular with the public and intrinsically linked to the period of the pandemic, are entitled to a nice portion of the show. The aesthetic on stage is charming. Sometimes well found, sometimes a bit “too much”. A cabin is recreated on the stage. A forest worthy of a storybook illustration is projected on the screen. The piano is covered in faux moss for a woodland witch look inspired by pagan myths. This is also an opportunity to recognize that if Taylor Swift is impeccable from start to finish with her dancers, backing singers and musicians, one of the rare faults of this Eras Tour is found in certain choices of artistic direction and scenography. . Very inspired visual effects with some successful illusions sometimes compete with dated computer-generated images and landscapes that should have remained wallpapers from 2008. Fortunately, Taylor Swift continues.

Naturally, the American cannot miss her magnum opus: 1989. Located in the middle of her marathon, this chapter looks back at the singer’s most famous titles: Style, Blank Space, Shake It Off, Wildest Dreams And Bad Blood. Songs that even the most secular spectators knew like the back of their hand. And, the big surprise, world exclusivity, intervened…

Very first time

Since a new album has just been released, as we explained in the introduction, Taylor Swift could not fail to fully exploit the potential of her current era. Embedded in the ears and brains of fans for just a few weeks, The Tortured Poets Department was entitled to his long sequence. A first for the Eras Tour and it was Paris which had the privilege of discovering this sequence for the first time. Renamed “Female Rage: The Musical”, this chapter consisted of 7 songs. A generous selection among the 31 tracks of this surprise double album.

Taylor Swift started with But Daddy I Love Him, the current hit from the album whose deliberately challenging lyrics on the idea of ​​the singer’s pregnancy (but no, don’t worry) has been making the rounds on social networks since April. Followed : So High Shool, Who’s Afraid Of Little Old Me?, Down Bad, Fortnight, The Smallest Man Who Ever Lived And I Can Do It With A Broken Heart. Stage premieres that totally electrified the Arena audience. For The Tortured Poets Department, Taylor Swift offers some of the most successful and elegant paintings of the evening. Acting with his dancers, inclined floor, white dress, typewriter… Everything works and we start dreaming of a concert dedicated to this universe.

Taylor Swift, always generous, also dedicated to our capital, city of love, a sequence just for her with his song Paris (that everyone was waiting for) but also loml at the piano. Here again, a first live performance.

It’s by his era Midnights as Taylor Swift concluded her breathtaking journey. It was necessary to accompany the heart of the night. Seven songs, once again, with for example Lavender Haze, Bejeweled, the tube Anti-hero and, as a final point: Karma.

Like all “best of” shows, some fans may always leave a little disappointed not to have heard their favorite song, an obscure gem lost at the bottom of a tracklist of an unknown album… But it must be recognized that Taylor Swift couldn’t have come up with a better assortment. All the essentials have been meticulously aligned by the singer. A smiling Taylor Swift, mischievous at times, who shows nothing of the considerable effort she puts in for more than three hours. She twirls, plays with the volume of her vaporous costumes, walks with determination by multiplying her arm and hand movements, changes into a witch or a seductress, a viper or Juliet… All without hesitation, in perfect control and with an honesty and universality that continues to touch the public. She’s not the most powerful singer on the planet for nothing.

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